Dubbing herself “little but mighty,” Mezzo Soprano Taylor Boykins doesn’t sell herself short when tackling the tall orders of the opera stage. Taylor made her Kennedy Center debut in 2014 as Mrs. Roché in Tony Small’s eco-conscious musical, RUKA. Later that year, she returned to The Kennedy Center as Alexis in the world premiere of Tony Small’s operetta Qadar with opera luminary Denyce Graves as Artistic Director.

In demand to sing traditional repertoire, Ms. Boykins was commissioned to perform An Evening of Opera; a lecture recital covering opera, art song, and a history of black opera singers, held at the University of Toledo in March of 2017. Throughout spring of 2017, Ms. Boykins could also be seen in the 16-show run of The Life of Marian Anderson through the Baltimore Lyric’s Opera To Go outreach program. In fall of 2016, she made her debut as alto soloist in Gustav Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, with one of Baltimore's newest chamber orchestras, Symphony Number One. She had a taste of contemporary opera, performing in the world premiere of Frances Pollock’s opera STINNEY in 2015, and later that year, Ms. Boykins performed works by Bizet, Montsalvatge, Schubert, Offenbach and Rossini at the Waterford Foundation in Virginia. In 2014, she sang the role of Soeur Mathilde in Dialogues des Carmelites, produced by the Peabody Opera Theatre at the Modell Lyric Opera House in Baltimore.

Ms. Boykins additionally seeks out opportunities to share music with diverse audiences. In Baltimore, she’s given volunteer performances at Basilica Place Senior Living, and she was creator of the concert series Music in the LivingRoom at Koffee Therapy, coffee shop in downtown Mount Vernon.

Ms. Boykins earned the Master of Music degree in vocal performance from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, where she was a protégé of Denyce Graves. A native of Michigan, she received her Bachelor of Music degree from Oakland University as a student of contralto, Nadine Washington.